2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 05 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Yangchen la starts this session with offering the long mandala, suggesting how we can think about the offering even if we don't understand the words. She then leads us in a brief guru yoga meditation, including the seven limb prayer to Guru Rinpoche. Yangchen then advises us how to prepare our minds for empowerment in readiness for receiving the Lake Born Vajra empowerment next week. Firstly, the mandala is a sacred space we enter. The physical aspects of the ritual implements etc. remind us that this is not ordinary and so she encourages us to prepare our own sacred space at home, wherever we will be for receiving the empowerment. Secondly she covers the topic of purification, including the four remedial powers and suggests we spend time over the coming week engaging in some extra purification practices. On the day of the empowerment we can gather some beautiful offerings, symbolising the moments of purity in our lives to offer to our Guru. Then we can think of our Guru as the one who transmits the energy of the empowerment, like the portal to meet Guru Rinpoche. We are then reminded not to fall back to the ordinary after receiving the empowerment and Yangchen mentions the teachings on vows and samayas covered in the 2019 retreat. Keeping the samayas keeps us in the sacred mandala and she reminds us of the need to develop reverence and respect towards our vajra siblings. The meditation which begins at 56:50 is one we can do just prior to next week's empowerment - a simple but profound approach to bring about the awareness of indivisible bliss and emptiness as a basis for receiving empowerment.
Lake-Born Vajra Empowerment June 2023, 05 May 2022, Online only - Video
It is suggested that everyone who will receive the Lake-Born Vajra empowerment listen to these teachings from Yangchen Ösel that were recorded May 5, 2022 as part of the Vajra Essence 8-week retreat. Yangchen la starts this teaching with offering the long mandala, suggesting how we can think about the offering even if we don’t understand the words. She then leads us in a brief guru yoga meditation, including the seven limb prayer to Guru Rinpoche. Yangchen then advises us how to prepare our minds for empowerment in readiness for receiving the Lake Born Vajra empowerment. Firstly, the mandala is a sacred space we enter. The physical aspects of the ritual implements etc. remind us that this is not ordinary and so she encourages us to prepare our own sacred space at home, wherever we will be for receiving the empowerment. Secondly she covers the topic of purification, including the four remedial powers and suggests we spend time over the coming week engaging in some extra purification practices. On the day of the empowerment we can gather some beautiful offerings, symbolizing the moments of purity in our lives to offer to our Guru. Then we can think of our Guru as the one who transmits the energy of the empowerment, like the portal to meet Guru Rinpoche. We are then reminded not to fall back to the ordinary after receiving the empowerment and Yangchen mentions the teachings on vows and samayas covered in the 2019 retreat. Keeping the samayas keeps us in the sacred mandala and she reminds us of the need to develop reverence and respect towards our vajra siblings. The meditation, which begins at 56:50 is one we can do just prior to next week’s empowerment - a simple but profound approach to bring about the awareness of indivisible bliss and emptiness as a basis for receiving empowerment.
Empowerment March 18-25 2024, 05 May 2022, Online
It is suggested that everyone who will receive the Lake-Born Vajra empowerment listen to these teachings from Yangchen Ösel that were recorded May 5, 2022 as part of the Vajra Essence 8-week retreat. Yangchen la starts this teaching with offering the long mandala, suggesting how we can think about the offering even if we don’t understand the words. She then leads us in a brief guru yoga meditation, including the seven limb prayer to Guru Rinpoche. Yangchen then advises us how to prepare our minds for empowerment in readiness for receiving the Lake Born Vajra empowerment. Firstly, the mandala is a sacred space we enter. The physical aspects of the ritual implements etc. remind us that this is not ordinary and so she encourages us to prepare our own sacred space at home, wherever we will be for receiving the empowerment. Secondly she covers the topic of purification, including the four remedial powers and suggests we spend time over the coming week engaging in some extra purification practices. On the day of the empowerment we can gather some beautiful offerings, symbolizing the moments of purity in our lives to offer to our Guru. Then we can think of our Guru as the one who transmits the energy of the empowerment, like the portal to meet Guru Rinpoche. We are then reminded not to fall back to the ordinary after receiving the empowerment and Yangchen mentions the teachings on vows and samayas covered in the 2019 retreat. Keeping the samayas keeps us in the sacred mandala and she reminds us of the need to develop reverence and respect towards our vajra siblings. The meditation, which begins at 56:50 is one we can do just prior to next week’s empowerment - a simple but profound approach to bring about the awareness of indivisible bliss and emptiness as a basis for receiving empowerment.
Lake-Born Vajra Empowerment Dec 30, 2024 - Jan 9, 2025, 05 May 2022, Online only - Video
It is suggested that everyone who will receive the Lake-Born Vajra empowerment listen to these teachings from Yangchen Ösel that were recorded May 5, 2022 as part of the Vajra Essence 8-week retreat. Yangchen la starts this teaching with offering the long mandala, suggesting how we can think about the offering even if we don’t understand the words. She then leads us in a brief guru yoga meditation, including the seven limb prayer to Guru Rinpoche. Yangchen then advises us how to prepare our minds for empowerment in readiness for receiving the Lake Born Vajra empowerment. Firstly, the mandala is a sacred space we enter. The physical aspects of the ritual implements etc. remind us that this is not ordinary and so she encourages us to prepare our own sacred space at home, wherever we will be for receiving the empowerment. Secondly she covers the topic of purification, including the four remedial powers and suggests we spend time over the coming week engaging in some extra purification practices. On the day of the empowerment we can gather some beautiful offerings, symbolizing the moments of purity in our lives to offer to our Guru. Then we can think of our Guru as the one who transmits the energy of the empowerment, like the portal to meet Guru Rinpoche. We are then reminded not to fall back to the ordinary after receiving the empowerment and Yangchen mentions the teachings on vows and samayas covered in the 2019 retreat. Keeping the samayas keeps us in the sacred mandala and she reminds us of the need to develop reverence and respect towards our vajra siblings. The meditation, which begins at 56:50 is one we can do just prior to the empowerment - a simple but profound approach to bring about the awareness of indivisible bliss and emptiness as a basis for receiving empowerment.
Lake-Born Vajra Nov 20-30 2025, 05 Nov 2022, Online
It is suggested that everyone who will receive the Lake-Born Vajra empowerment listen to these teachings from Yangchen Ösel/Eva Natanya that were recorded May 5, 2022 as part of the Vajra Essence 8-week retreat. Yangchen la starts this teaching with offering the long mandala, suggesting how we can think about the offering even if we don’t understand the words. She then leads us in a brief guru yoga meditation, including the seven limb prayer to Guru Rinpoche. Yangchen then advises us how to prepare our minds for empowerment in readiness for receiving the Lake Born Vajra empowerment. Firstly, the mandala is a sacred space we enter. The physical aspects of the ritual implements etc. remind us that this is not ordinary and so she encourages us to prepare our own sacred space at home, wherever we will be for receiving the empowerment. Secondly she covers the topic of purification, including the four remedial powers and suggests we spend time over the coming week engaging in some extra purification practices. On the day of the empowerment we can gather some beautiful offerings, symbolizing the moments of purity in our lives to offer to our Guru. Then we can think of our Guru as the one who transmits the energy of the empowerment, like the portal to meet Guru Rinpoche. We are then reminded not to fall back to the ordinary after receiving the empowerment and Yangchen mentions the teachings on vows and samayas covered in the 2019 retreat. Keeping the samayas keeps us in the sacred mandala and she reminds us of the need to develop reverence and respect towards our vajra siblings. The meditation, which begins at 56:50 is one we can do just prior to the empowerment - a simple but profound approach to bring about the awareness of indivisible bliss and emptiness as a basis for receiving empowerment. We are happy to now have a transcript of these teachings, which you will find below.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 15 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Nonconceptually Investigate the One “in Here”
Outer preliminaries for Dzogchen from Lama Alan, 12 Apr 2020, Online - Originally part of 2020 8-week retreat
12 Apr 2020 Transforming the Reality of Suffering
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 19 Apr 2021, Online-only
Buddha's Discourse on Loving-Kindness
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 15 Apr 2020, Online-only
Probing into the Sense of "I am an Inherently Existing Self"
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 11 May 2021, Online-only
Observe the afflictive nature of attachment, hostility, and delusion in your coarse mind; trace them to their relative sources as bliss, luminosity, and nonconceptuality in your subtle mind, the substrate consciousness; and finally, cutting through the conditioned mind, trace them back to the primordial consciousness of discernment, mirror-like primordial consciousness, and the primordial consciousness of the absolute space of phenomena of your very subtle mind.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 06 May 2020, Online-only
Yangthang Rinpoche's Guidance on Taking the Mind as the Path
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 23 Apr 2020, Online-only
Distinguishing Space of the Mind from Appearances
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 15 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
Day Three, Session One Q&A To maintain the privacy of the attendees some of the questions may not be heard, but in the video version of the Q&A the questions are shown on the screen. We apologize for this inconvenience.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 27 Apr 2021, Online-only
Practice mindfulness of breathing simply by noting the rhythm of the respiration
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 16 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
Day Four, Session One Q&A To maintain the privacy of the attendees some of the questions may not be heard, but in the video version of the Q&A the questions are shown on the screen. We apologize for this inconvenience.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 21 May 2021, Online-only
Having taken refuge and aroused bodhicitta, the view of emptiness, and the view of the Great Perfection, rest in awareness while remaining entirely inactive.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 10 May 2020, Online-only
Padmasambhava: Knowing Who You Really Are
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 09 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Observe the Dualistic Mind Dissolving
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 06 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Observe the Reification of Mental or Physical Objects
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 10 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching. Alan repeats the series on the 4 greats, starting with great compassion. Focusing on the cause of suffering, we have experienced during the retreat that the mind caught up in rumination is very vulnerable to suffering. Mind is beaten up by samsara. Without shamatha, the mind is dysfunctional. When the mind is able to rest in the substrate, there is no blatant suffering. The proper way to view shamatha is not as an end itself, but as an on-ramp to the path of awakening.
Meditation. Great compassion preceded by settling body, speech, and mind.
1) settling body, speech, and mind. Let your awareness illuminate the space of the body, without entering into the body. Relinquish all control over the breath, releasing all thoughts with every out breath. Simply observe the flow of the breath. In the spirit of renunciation, let awareness be still in the present moment.
2) great compassion. Turn your awarenss outwards. Inquire 1) why couldn’t we all be free from suffering and the causes of suffering? All sentient beings have substrate consciousness. 2) May we realize this freedom. 3) May I free each one. 4) May I receive blessings from the guru and all the enlightened ones to do so. With every in breath, light comes in from all directions, empowering you to fulfill your aspiration. With every out breath, that light flows out in all directions, freeing each sentient being you encounter.
Meditation starts at 03:40
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 02 Apr 2021, Online-only
The Synergy between Settling the Body, Speech and Mind in their Natural States
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 14 May 2020, Online-only
The Search for Identity
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 09 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, distinguish among the three kinds of feelings—pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral—in the mind. Examine the impact of observing the feelings on the feelings themselves: do they increase, decrease, or remain unaffected? Examine the conditions that give rise to them, their own nature while present, and the manner in which they disappear.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 20 Apr 2020, Online-only
Merging Mind with Space
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 07 Apr 2021, Online-only
Take Refuge, Arouse Bodhicitta, and Settle the Mind in its Natural State
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 03 May 2020, Online-only
Taking a Seat in the Cinema of Your Mind
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 28 Apr 2020, Online-only
Mindfulness of Breathing and Feelings as a Gateway
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 06 May 2020, Online-only
Immeasurable Impartiality
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 16 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day Four, Session One, Meditation Only Having settled your body, speech, and mind in their natural states, continue to rest without wavering in awareness, while turning the light of you attention to the space of the mind
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 19 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in the stillness of awareness, observe the movements of your mind. When the appearances of other people come to mind, instead of viewing them merely as appearances, imagine shifting your perspective to theirs, “exchanging yourself for others,” and experiencing the movements of their minds as if they were your own. Recognize that none of these mental events have an owner, so none of them are actually yours or theirs.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 03 May 2021, Online-only
Practice mindfulness of breathing while noting the occurrence and absence of the five obscurations, and see for yourself whether they obscure the natural luminosity of your awareness, which is like a clear pool of water (1) mixed with various color, (20 that is boiling, (3) covered over by moss, (4) whipped by the wind, and (5) turbid and muddy.
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 05 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Meditation: transition from mindfulness of breathing with full body awareness to settling the mind.
1) mindfulness of breathing with full body awareness: Feel the beginning of the in breath at the lower abdomen and let it flow from the bottom up. Let awareness illuminate the space of the whole body. Maintain non-conceptual flow of mindfulness of non-conceptual sensations associated with the in and out breaths, monitoring that mindfulness with introspection.
2) settling the mind: Eyes at least partially open, with absent gaze. As an anchor, maintain a general awareness of the breath. As the main practice, direct interest and awareness to the space of the mind and the thoughts and images arising therein. Simply observe the nature of thoughts and not their content. Don’t modify or grasp. Your awareness should be still while thoughts are in motion.
There should be a deep sense of relaxation in both the body and awareness. Breathe through either the nostrils or the mouth as desired.
Meditation starts: 00:00
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 02 Apr 2020, Online-only
Settling Body, Speech & Mind as a Gateway to Shamatha.
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 12 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan reminds us that closely holding the mind causes suffering. There are two methods which free us from this suffering 1) relative bodhicitta where we identify with all sentient beings and 2) absolute bodhicitta where we completely retract all the tentacles by withdrawing into the substrate and then rigpa. In this practice, we train in viewing mental events from the non-grasping, non-reactive perspective of substrate consciousness.
Meditation: settling the mind with full body awareness as a prelude. Enter this and all meditation sessions in the spirit of loving-kindness for yourself and others.
1) full body awareness. With your eyes closed, contain awareness within the space of the body, observing sensations without distraction or grasping.
2) settling the mind. Let eyes be open, gaze vacant. Direct attention to the space of the mind and its contents. Rest awareness in stillness while observing movements of the mind.
In between sessions, allow thoughts to arise but maintain lucidity throughout the day.
Meditation starts at 6:00
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 05 Apr 2020, Online-only
Dzogchen Approach to Mindfulness of Breathing
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 20 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Eva starts the teaching by mentioning that she feels as if we are starting the retreat all over again since from now on we will review and familiarize ourselves with the great variety of meditations that we have been practicing so far. This is quite useful since ideally one would spend days, weeks or years in one single practice for the next practice to land well. Then Eva discusses the reason why she will not explain in more detail the vase breathing and if one feels attracted to it it is best to follow it from a teacher that can check whether one is doing it properly. Eva also explains how her approach of teaching to do these practices in a subtle way prevents one from creating obstacles for one’s own practice while when done properly with the proper samadhi they will still produce the desired effects. Then, Eva reads and explains to us some passages from Lama Tzong Khapa from the Great Book on the Steps of Mantra, chapter 11, on the distinction between the stage of generation and completion. From these passages Eva explains that the visualizations that we do at the stage of generation level are planting the seeds that when the mind of clear light is accessed, non conceptually, that mind will know how to manifest as that holy body in an instant. Just like the bodichita is what allows us to see the emptiness of reality and sets so that you would manifest as the rupakaya and the sambhogakaya. Finally Eva mentions that Lama Tzong Khapa indicates that to practice the completion stage incidentally, without abandoning the generation stage, is not wrong. It is okay. While abandoning the generation stage, without the proper basis, is wrong and it will not create the desired results even if there will be facsimiles. The meditation, on the generation stage, delves into the visualization of ourselves as Vairocana in a pure realm. The meditation emphasizes on seeing Vairocana’s pure empty body with its central channel. It starts at 1:08:09
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 27 Apr 2020, Online-only
Stillness in the Midst of Motion
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 14 Apr 2021, Online-only
While Resting in Awareness, Ask “Who do I think I am?” Are You Unchanging, Unitary, and Independent?
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 16 May 2021, Online-only
Distinguish between the movements of javana and the stillness of the bhavaṅga
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 13 Apr 2021, Online-only
Practice the Second Phase of Shamatha without a Sign as Taught by Padmasambhava in Natural Liberation
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 13 Apr 2020, Online-only
Authentic Vipassana as Narrated in the Pali Cannon
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 05 Apr 2021, Online-only
Investigating the Essential Nature of Inner Demons
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 14 Apr 2021, Online-only
Rest in Awareness Illuminating the 6 Fields of Experience, Observe Your Mind “Making Sense of the World Around You"
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 29 May 2020, Online-only
Integrating the 3 Phases of the Vajra Essence
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 28 Apr 2021, Online-only
Discerningly note the relative duration of each in- and out-breath, and how the respiration gradually becomes shallower as your body-mind calms and your respiration settles in its natural rhythm.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 22 May 2020, Online-only
Sera Khandro's Pointing Out Instructions
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 11 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching pt1. Alan continues the series on the 4 greats with great loving-kindness. Hedonic well-being is important, and the understanding of cause and effect in the natural world by modern science has made important contributions. In union with shamatha, knowing reality as it is through the wisdom of dependent origination and emptiness leads to durable eudaimonia.
Meditation. Great loving-kindness preceded by mindfulness of the body and the mind.
1) mindfulness of the body. Seated on its throne, awareness illuminates the space of the body and appearances therein. Closely apply mindfulness to the body, withholding all concepts and labels. The appearances are empty of concepts, empty of the body. Sustain the flow of mindful knowing without distractions, without grasping.
2) mindfulness of the mind. With your eyes open, direct awareness to the space of the mind and mental events, withholding conceptual designations. They are empty of concepts, empty of the mind. Withdraw the light of awareness from all appearances and turn it onto itself. Attend closely to awareness in the present moment. Where is awareness to be found? It is unfindable, unknowable, empty.
3) great loving-kindness. Turn your awarenss outwards. All sentient beings have primordial consciousness, so 1) why couldn’t we all find happiness and the causes of happiness? 2) May we all find happiness and its causes. 3) May I lead each one to happiness and its causes. 4) May I receive blessings from the guru and all the enlightened ones to do so. With every in breath, light comes in from all sides, filling your body and mind. With every out breath, that light flows out in all directions, leading each sentient to their own awakening.
Teaching pt2. While in retreat, we’ve been breathing in meditative equipoise. As we leave retreat, we need to breath out the 4 immeasurables, especially when reality is not dishing out the circumstances for shamatha. Dharma practice requires balance, and we need to be able to respond to reality with great mental suppleness.
Meditation starts at 5:10
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 20 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in the stillness of awareness, mindfully note the presence, absence, conditions for their occurrence, the means to remove them, and the prevention of their occurrence in the future of each of the five obscurations.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 01 Apr 2020, Online-only
Tonglen
Prophecy received by Dudjom Lingpa, 10 Apr 2020, United States
Guided Meditation
